Predicting Unequal Planetary Load Sharing Due to Manufacturing Errors and System Deflections, with Validation Against Test Data

The design of planetary gear systems is restricted by the difficulty that engineers have in calculating the unequal load sharing between planets. This can occur due to manufacturing errors or system deflection.

This paper outlines a numerical simulation method that predicts the load sharing between planets due to system deflections and manufacturing errors. The 3D model includes gear mesh stiffness and backlash, non-linear bearing stiffness and ring gear and planet carrier stiffness.

A similar analysis is carried out on a split torque gearbox. The results correlate with test data extremely well and impart a high degree of confidence in the analysis method.